It is known that a pin on an electrical connector generally consists of a substantially cylindrical part involving a certain number of machining operations such as boring, milling, undercutting, broaching, drilling, tapping, threading, cut-off, deburring, surfacing, folding and/or bending.
All these machining operations are presently carried out in a certain number of locations, the partially machined workpiece being moved after each operation.
For example, the workpiece having undergone a first machining operation on a first machine is then handled for placement on a second machine at a different location to undergo further machining.
It is hence easily conceivable that all these machining and handling operations require time.
To deal with these requirements, certain industries have developed machine-tools equivalent to robots which pick up a blank and which, from this blank, deliver the completely machined part without human intervention.
However, these robots are not specially designed for the manufacture of electrical connector pins.
Hence, machine-tools equivalent to these robots are too sophisticated, complex and hence costly to be profitable in the manufacture of parts such as pins for electrical connectors.
It is the object of the present invention to overcome the problems arising from the present lack of machines specially designed for the manufacture of electrical connector pins by proposing a machine-tool adapted to the machining of these pins and whose performance is equivalent to the most complex machines presently known in the field of robotics.